Agile Requirements Engineering Research Articles

Challenges of Requirements Engineering in Agile Projects: A Systematic Review

The practice of Requirements Engineering (RE) within Agile development contexts markedly differs from that within traditional development process. As the RE discipline in Agile Software Development continues to evolve, this research highlights and assesses various challenges to refine its impact on software product development. This study describes inductive and empirical research on Agile RE challenges and practices based on an analysis of data collected in the binding academic and scientific literature. This research is also based on the guidelines of a Systematic Review of the Literature (SRL) proposed by Kitchenham. Our results indicate eight type of challenges that we grouped into four themes: suitability delimitations, on software product development projects, the formation of the development team, and the efficient participation of the client during the process. Finally, this paper contributes detailed insights into RE challenges specific to Agile project development, evaluates their resolution extent, and outlines existing research gaps in RE practices

Barriers of Agile Requirements Engineering in the Public Sector: A Systematic Literature Review

Aim/Purpose: The objective of this study is to summarize the challenges of Agile Requirements Engineering (Agile RE) in the public sector in republican and constitutional monarchy nations. Additionally, it offers recommendations to address these challenges. Background: Failure of IT projects in the public sector results in financial losses for the state and loss of public trust, often attributed to issues in requirements engineering such as prioritization of user needs and excessive scope of requirements. IT projects can have a higher success rate with Agile RE, but there are also drawbacks. Therefore, this study holds significance by presenting a thorough framework designed to pinpoint and overcome the challenges associated with Agile RE to increase the success rate of IT projects. Methodology: This study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) protocol in the field of software engineering or related domains, which consists of three main phases: planning the review, conducting the review with a snowballing approach, and reporting the review. Furthermore, the authors perform open coding to categorize challenges based on the Agile methodologies adoption factor model and axial coding to map potential solutions. Contribution: The authors assert that this research enriches the existing literature on Agile RE, specifically within the public sector context, by mapping out challenges and possible solutions that contribute to creating a foundation for future studies to conduct a more in-depth analysis of Agile adoption in the public sector. Furthermore, it compares the barriers of Agile RE in the public sector with the general context, leading to the discovery of new theories specifically for this field. Findings: Most challenges related to Agile RE in the public sector are found in the people and process aspects. Project and organizational-related are subsequent aspects. Therefore, handling people and processes proficiently is imperative within Agile RE to prevent project failure. Recommendations for Practitioners: Our findings offer a comprehensive view of Agile RE in the public sector in republican and constitutional monarchy nations. This study maps the challenges encountered by the public sector and provides potential solutions. The authors encourage practitioners to consider our findings as a foundation for adopting Agile methodology in the public sector. Furthermore, this study can assist practitioners in identifying existing barriers related to Agile RE, pinpointing elements that contribute to overcoming those challenges, and developing strategies based on the specific needs of the organizations. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers have the potential to expand the scope of this study by conducting research in other countries, especially African countries, as this study has not yet encompassed this geographic region. Additionally, they can strengthen the evidence linking Agile RE challenges to the risk of Agile project failure by performing empirical validation in a specific country. Impact on Society: This research conducts a comprehensive exploration of Agile RE within the public sector, serving as a foundation for the successful adoption of Agile methodology by overcoming obstacles related to Agile RE. This study highlights the importance of managing people, processes, projects, and organizational elements to increase the success of Agile adoption in the public sector. Future Research: In the future, researchers should work towards resolving the limitations identified in this study. This study has not provided a clear prioritization of challenges and solutions according to their significance. Therefore, future researchers can perform a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (F-AHP) to prioritize the proposed solutions.

Effects of common requirements engineering techniques on requirements engineering success in agile environments: A case study from Sri Lanka

Requirements engineering is the process of exploring, analyzing, documenting and handling the needs to be facilitated through a computer-based system that is being developed. Though software solutions fail due to many reasons, Flawed Requirements Engineering (RE) is one of the main causes leading to failure of software projects especially in agile environments where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Therefore, succeeding in RE is an essential factor which influences success of the entire software project. In the light of achieving project success, various methods have been introduced to deal with RE. Main aim of this study is to explore the relationship between commonly used techniques and successful agile requirements engineering in agile environments with a special emphasis to Sri Lankan context. A secondary objective was to suggest innovative recommendations to software solution developers to achieve RE success. Five research questions were formulated to explore the relationship between mostly common techniques of requirements management and success of agile requirements engineering. Through key readings related to agile project development, authors have identified five key success factors as having an influence on successful project completion in an agile environment and are being tested in this research. Authors have designed the study taking an epistemological standpoint of positivism, using quantitative methods and case study strategy to derive conclusions. The entire population 130 employees of the case organization been considered for this study. The quantitative analysis of was conducted based on 105 valid responses gained through a five-point Likert scaled questionnaire from the case organization. It has been discovered that these common requirement engineering techniques are correlated with project success in agile environments. Further, scrutiny of each requirements engineering phase, led to finding a set of most effective techniques to be utilized in an agile environment contributing to software development project success.
 Keywords: Requirements engineering, agile software development, project failures

Critical Success Factors and Challenges in Agile Requirements Engineering

Nowadays, the requirements of the software are changing rapidly in order to meet clients’ needs, which increases the complexity of developing software. Thus, Agile requirements engineering has arisen and it focuses on how to deal with the increasing changes in software requirements by gathering requirements iteratively and collaboratively with the clients. Thus, the clients’ satisfaction could be met more easily. On the other side, researchers have tried to improve agile requirements engineering from time to time, however, there are still limitations and challenges faced, which need more attention. Thus, this study is conducted by performing a systematic literature review technique to investigate the challenges, critical success factors, and the topics that need more attention in the agile requirements engineering field. In the beginning, the study obtained 178 articles related to this topic which were published from 2002 until 2019. After a thorough analysis of the articles, the study reviewed the ten (10) challenges and the proposed solutions that mentioned in the previous studies. Besides that, the study found six (6) critical success factors, and highlighted four (4) topics that need more attention from the researchers in future studies in agile requirements engineering.

Agile-Based Education for Teaching an Agile Requirements Engineering Methodology for Knowledge Management

The importance of the role that knowledge management (KM) plays in the success of knowledge-intensive organizations has long been acknowledged. However, requirements engineering (RE) methods for KM solutions still lack maturity, as do the educational programs in this domain. In this paper, an agile-based educational method for teaching RE for KM solutions, specifically an agile KM RE methodology (AKM-REM), is proposed. The paper reports a teaching experience, in which 17 teams of graduate students learned and implemented AKM-REM, each in a different real-life case study. Data were collected via class observations and from the students’ submitted projects and underwent qualitative content analysis. The findings demonstrate the manner in which AKM-REM creates a culture of collaboration, trust, and reflection, fostering the dynamic and flexible organization that is required in today’s competitive business environment. The contribution of this paper is fourfold. First, it presents an extension of the research on agile-based RE for KM solutions as a specialized area. Second, it presents an extension of an existing method KM-REM along the agile principles. Third, it provides means for agile-based education for analyzing and addressing KM challenges effectively. Finally, it describes the importance of agile KM RE in the context of sustainability.

Agile Requirements Engineering and Software Planning for a Digital Health Platform to Engage the Effects of Isolation Caused by Social Distancing: Case Study.

BackgroundSocial distancing and shielding measures have been put in place to reduce social interaction and slow the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). For older people, self-isolation presents particular challenges for mental health and social relationships. As time progresses, continued social distancing could have a compounding impact on these concerns.ObjectiveThis project aims to provide a tool for older people and their families and peers to improve their well-being and health during and after regulated social distancing. First, we will evaluate the tool’s feasibility, acceptability, and usability to encourage positive nutrition, enhance physical activity, and enable virtual interaction while social distancing. Second, we will be implementing the app to provide an online community to assist families and peer groups in maintaining contact with older people using goal setting. Anonymized data from the app will be aggregated with other real-world data sources to develop a machine learning algorithm to improve the identification of patients with COVID-19 and track for real time use by health systems.MethodsDevelopment of this project is occurring at the time of publication, and therefore, a case study design was selected to provide a systematic means of capturing software engineering in progress. The app development framework for software design was based on agile methods. The evaluation of the app’s feasibility, acceptability and usability shall be conducted using Public Health England's guidance on evaluating digital health products, Bandura’s model of health promotion, the Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework and the Nonadoption, Abandonment and Challenges to the Scale-up, Spread and Suitability (NASSS) framework.ResultsMaking use of a pre-existing software framework for health behavior change, a proof of concept was developed, and a multistage app development and deployment for the solution was created. Grant submissions to fund the project and study execution have been sought at the time of publication, and prediscovery iteration of the solution has begun. Ethical approval for a feasibility study design is being sought.ConclusionsThis case study lays the foundations for future app development to combat mental and societal issues arising from social distancing measures. The app will be tested and evaluated in future studies to allow continuous improvement of the app. This novel contribution will provide an evidence-based exemplar for future app development in the space of social isolation and loneliness.

Model-based approach for agile requirements engineering using SysML and Papyrus

This paper presents a model for the application of agile requirements engineering. The literature review made it possible to identify the requirements elicitation process based on standards such as capability maturity model integration, software engineering body of Knowledge and how their practices can complement those of agile methodologies, to reduce risk factors and guarantee the success of software projects. This process gives importance to the continuous communication with stakeholders in an iterative process, which is maintained throughout the project and begins with the identification of the problem domain, and then gradually refining characteristics and objectives in user stories and it ends with the development of the product backlog, which will serve as input to the application agile development process. The results propose a model, indicating the different stages for requirements engineering using the agile systems modeling language and the Papyrus tool.

Agile Requirements Engineering: An Empirical Analysis and Evidence from a Tertiary Education Context

Aim/Purpose: The study describes empirical research into agile Requirements Engineering (RE) practices based on an analysis of data collected in a large higher education organization. Background: Requirements Engineering (RE) in agile development contexts is considerably different than in traditional software development. The field of agile RE is still nascent where there is a need to evaluate its impact in real-world settings. Methodology: Using a case study methodology, the study involved interviewing nine experienced software practitioners who reflected on the use and implementation of various agile RE practices in two software development projects of a student management system. Contribution: The primary contribution of the paper is the evaluation of agile RE practices in a large tertiary educational organization. Based on the analysis of the data, it provides valuable insights into the practice of agile RE in a specific context (i.e., education), but just as importantly, the ones that were omitted or replaced with others and why. Findings: While the evolutionary and iterative approach to defining requirements was followed in general, not all agile practices could be fully adhered to in the case organization. Although face-to-face communication with the customers has been recognized as one the most important agile RE practices, it was one of the most difficult practices to achieve with a large and diverse customer base. Addressing people issues (e.g., resistance to change, thinking, and mindset) was found to be a key driver to following the iterative RE process effectively. Contrary to the value-based approach advocated in the literature, the value-based approach was not strictly adhered to in requirements prioritization. Continuous integration was perceived to be a more beneficial practice than prototyping, as it allows frequent integration of code and facilitates delivering working software when necessary. Recommendations for Practitioners: Our study has important implications for practitioners. Based on our empirical analysis, we provide specific recommendations for effective implementation of agile RE practices. For example, our findings suggest that practitioners could address the challenges associated with limited face-to-face communication challenges by producing flexible, accessible, and electronic documentation to enable communication. Recommendations for Researchers: Researchers can use the identified agile RE practices and their variants to per-form in-depth investigations into agile requirements engineering in other educational contexts. Impact on Society: There are a number of new technologies that offer exciting new opportunities that can be explored to maximize the benefits of agile and other requirements techniques. Future Research: Future research could conduct case studies in different contexts and thus con-tribute to developing bundles or collections of practices to improve software development processes in specific contexts.

A Metamodel for Agile Requirements Engineering

Value delivery is becoming an important asset for an organization due to increasing competition in industry. Therefore, companies apply Agile Software Development (ASD) to be more competitive and reduce time to market. Using ASD for the development of systems implies that established approaches of Requirements Engineering (RE) undergo some changes in order to be more flexible to changing requirements. To this end, the field of agile RE is emergent and different process models for agile RE have arisen. The aim of this paper is to build an abstract layer about the variety of existing process models by means of a metamodel for agile RE. It has been created in several iterations and relies on the evaluation of related process models. Furthermore, we have derived process models for agile RE in industry by presenting instances of the metamodel in two different cases: one is based on Scrum whereas the other is based on Kanban. This paper contributes to the software development body of knowledge by delivering a metamodel for agile RE that supports researchers and practitioners modeling and improving their own process models. We can conclude that the agile RE metamodel is highly relevant for the industry as well as for the research community, since we have derived it following empirical research in the field of ASD.

A Metamodel for Agile Requirements Engineering

A Metamodel for Agile Requirements Engineering

A Fuzzy Approach to Prioritisation of Security Requirements in a Constrained Agile Software Development Environment

Requirements Engineering (RE) is software engineering process that takes place early namely, during the planning phases of software development. The spate of hacking incidents, more especially the ransomware infections, recently has suggested a more robust approach to web application security during RE. This will not only prevent these vulnerabilities but also the necessary rework after a hacking incident. The prioritisation process in RE is instrumental in ensuring if a security requirement gets implemented or is kept on hold indefinitely. A desktop literature review revealed ample scope for fuzzy TOPSIS as a security requirements prioritisation technique. The aim of this research study was to assess the viability of a new and more inclusive technique of more precisely ranking security requirements. A fuzzy automated tool was developed to test this new approach to ranking security requirements. The method will ensure the implementation of the most important security requirements to secure the system. The Design Science Research Methodology guided the development of the automated fuzzy software tool. The automated tool was evaluated in a qualitative study at 17 software development companies. The researcher used structured interviews and document reviews as the primary research instruments. Qualitative data was analyzed deductively using content analysis. It was found that an immediate benefit of the tool is that it prevented biases and autocratic leaders from influencing decision making during security risk analysis. The study concluded that the automated fuzzy tool showed positive results for ranking security requirements in Agile RE. Further research on the usability of the software tool is recommended.

Perceived importance of agile requirements engineering practices – A survey

Context:Requirements Engineering (RE) is one of the key processes in software development. Since Agile software development advocates continuous improvement, the question arises which Agile RE practices are the most essential and shall be adopted/improved at first? Objective:Investigate and rank the Agile RE practices based on how practitioners perceive their importance for a software project.Method:We conducted a survey asking 136 Agile software development practitioners how they perceive the importance of the 31 Agile RE practices that we had identified in a literature study. We used a ranking method based on the PROMETHEE family methods to create the ranking of relative importance of the practices.Results:The opinions of respondents from a wide range of countries around the globe allowed us to determine the perceived importance of the Agile RE practices and create a seven-tier ranking of the practices. Moreover, the analysis concerning demographic data let us identify some relationships between the experience of the respondents and their view on the importance of the Agile RE practices.Conclusions:Our findings suggest the most critical Agile RE practices are those supporting iterative development with emergent requirements and short feedback loop. Moreover, in many cases, the perceived importance of practices seems to depend on the context of the project (e.g., methodology, domain). We also learned that the popularity of the practices is highly correlated with their perceived importance.

Agile Requirements Engineering in Practice: Status Quo and Critical Problems

Requirements Engineering (RE) is being treated differently in agile development when compared to more traditional development processes. Yet, there is little empirical knowledge on the state of the practice and contemporary problems in agile RE. As part of a bigger survey initiative (Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering), the main goal of this paper is to build an empirical basis on such aspects of agile RE, based on the responses of representatives from 92 different organisations. Our survey data analyses revealed that agile RE concentrates on free-text documentation of requirements elicited with a variety of techniques. The backlog is the central means to deal with changing requirements. Commonly traces between requirements and code are explicitly managed and testing and RE are typically aligned. Furthermore, continuous improvement of RE is performed due to intrinsic motivation and RE standards are commonly practiced. Among the main problems, we highlight incomplete requirements, communication flaws and moving targets. Those problems were reported to happen commonly in agile projects and to have critical consequences, including project failure. Overall, our findings show that most organisations conduct RE in a way we would expect and that agile RE is in several aspects not so different from RE in other development processes.

Requirements engineering: A systematic mapping study in agile software development

ContextRequirements engineering in agile software development is a relatively recent software engineering topic and it is not completely explored and understood. The understanding of how this process works on agile world needs a deeper analysis. ObjectiveThe goal of this paper is to map the subject area of requirements engineering in agile context to identify the main topics that have been researched and to identify gaps to develop future researches. It is also intended to identify the obstacles that practitioners face when using agile requirements engineering. MethodA systematic mapping study was conducted and as a result 2171 papers were initially identified and further narrowed to 104 by applying exclusion criteria and analysis. ConclusionAfter completing the classification and the analysis of the selected studies it was possible to identify 15 areas (13 based on SWEBOK) where researches were developed. Five of such areas points to the need of future researches, among them are requirements elicitation, change management, measuring requirements, software requirements tools and comparative studies between traditional and agile requirements. In this research, some obstacles that practitioners face dealing with requirements engineering in agile context were also identified. They are related to environment, people and resources.

Digital standards: key role in shaping the it sector and the interest of coordination within agile dynamics

This work will first consider the economic-industrial importance of digital standards in shaping the IT1 sector. Then empirical research will focus on the innovative driver represented by their coordination as open standards within an agile framework. This process innovation will be contextualized with parallel models that are constitutive of an agile paradigm, Lean Production, Agile Manufacturing, Agile Software Development, and Agile Requirements Engineering (for that purpose, the singularities between requirements engineering and digital standardization will be shown). Then an in-depth case study will be undertaken about the non-profit international consortium OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). Findings will show how the model emphasizes agile dynamics in the industrially-oriented open coordination of digital standardization.JEL Codes: L15, O32, O33, L3, A12, M15

Implicit Thinking Knowledge Injection Framework for Agile Requirements Engineering

Agile has become commonly used as a software development methodology and its success depends on face-to-face communication of software developers and the faster software product delivery. Implicit thinking knowledge has considered as a very significant for organization self-learning. The main goal of paying attention to managing the implicit thinking knowledge is to retrieve valuable information of how the software is developed. However, requirements documentation is a challenging task for Agile software engineers. The current Agile requirements documentation does not incorporate the implicit thinking knowledge with the values it intends to achieve in the software project. This research addresses this issue and introduce a framework assists to inject the implicit thinking knowledge in Agile requirements engineering. An experiment used a survey questionnaire and case study of real project implemented for the framework evaluation. The results show that the framework enables software engineers to share and document their implicit thinking knowledge during Agile requirements documentation.

Exploring Issues in Agile Requirements Engineering in the South African Software Industry

AbstractIssues of the agile requirements engineering (ARE) process are abundant and pervasive throughout software projects. The aim of this study was to determine common issues experienced in agile requirements engineering in the South African software industry and identify tools and frameworks to mitigate risks emanating from such problems. This includes finding out how much value software practitioners put in the agile principles of the Agile Manifesto. This study was essentially quantitative. Self‐administered questionnaires were used to collect required data which was then subjected to exploratory data analysis, a tool for statistical analysis. The results suggest that software practitioners have a strong penchant for principles of the Agile Manifesto. A detailed baseline of issues in agile requirements engineering was created along with a set of recommended tools and techniques used in the software industry. And developers are divergent on the idea of non‐functional requirements integration which is vital for software quality.

Agile Requirements Engineering: A systematic literature review

Nowadays, Agile Software Development (ASD) is used to cope with increasing complexity in system development. Hybrid development models, with the integration of User-Centered Design (UCD), are applied with the aim to deliver competitive products with a suitable User Experience (UX). Therefore, stakeholder and user involvement during Requirements Engineering (RE) are essential in order to establish a collaborative environment with constant feedback loops. The aim of this study is to capture the current state of the art of the literature related to Agile RE with focus on stakeholder and user involvement. In particular, we investigate what approaches exist to involve stakeholder in the process, which methodologies are commonly used to present the user perspective and how requirements management is been carried out.We conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with an extensive quality assessment of the included studies. We identified 27 relevant papers. After analyzing them in detail, we derive deep insights to the following aspects of Agile RE: stakeholder and user involvement, data gathering, user perspective, integrated methodologies, shared understanding, artifacts, documentation and Non-Functional Requirements (NFR). Agile RE is a complex research field with cross-functional influences. This study will contribute to the software development body of knowledge by assessing the involvement of stakeholder and user in Agile RE, providing methodologies that make ASD more human-centric and giving an overview of requirements management in ASD.

A multi-case study of agile requirements engineering and the use of test cases as requirements

ContextIt is an enigma that agile projects can succeed ‘without requirements’ when weak requirements engineering is a known cause for project failures. While agile development projects often manage well without extensive requirements test cases are commonly viewed as requirements and detailed requirements are documented as test cases. ObjectiveWe have investigated this agile practice of using test cases as requirements to understand how test cases can support the main requirements activities, and how this practice varies. MethodWe performed an iterative case study at three companies and collected data through 14 interviews and two focus groups. ResultsThe use of test cases as requirements poses both benefits and challenges when eliciting, validating, verifying, and managing requirements, and when used as a documented agreement. We have identified five variants of the test-cases-as-requirements practice, namely de facto, behaviour-driven, story-test driven, stand-alone strict and stand-alone manual for which the application of the practice varies concerning the time frame of requirements documentation, the requirements format, the extent to which the test cases are a machine executable specification and the use of tools which provide specific support for the practice of using test cases as requirements. ConclusionsThe findings provide empirical insight into how agile development projects manage and communicate requirements. The identified variants of the practice of using test cases as requirements can be used to perform in-depth investigations into agile requirements engineering. Practitioners can use the provided recommendations as a guide in designing and improving their agile requirements practices based on project characteristics such as number of stakeholders and rate of change.

Investigation of Adherence Degree of Agile Requirements Engineering Practices in Non-Agile Software Development Organizations

Requirements are critical for the success of software projects. Requirements are practically difficult to produce, as the hardest stage of building a software system is to decide what the system should do. Moreover, requirements errors are expensive to fix in the later phases of the software development life cycle. The rapidly changing business environment is highly challenging traditional Requirements Engineering (RE) practices. Most of the software development organizations are working in such dynamic environment, as a result, either by or without their awareness agile methodologies are adopted in various phases of their software development cycles. The aim of this paper is to investigate the adherence degree of agile RE practices in various software development organizations that are classifying themselves as adopting traditional (i.e. non-agile) software development methodologies. An approach is proposed for achieving this aim and it is applied on five different projects from four different organizations. The result shows that even the non-agile software development organizations are applying agile RE practices by different adherence degrees.